Who Owns Patient Medical Records?

Urgent message: While historically there has been an understanding that patients own the information contained in their medical records, and that providers own the record itself, the current lack of a federal law governing the ownership of medical records poses a conundrum when those records are stored electronically. New challenges demand innovative solutions—often in the form of new technologies that make life easier. Certainly technology has advanced healthcare to improve and lengthen our lives. Yet, …

Read More

Protecting Patient Privacy in the Cloud

K Royal, JD, CIPP/E, CIPP/US Urgent message: The shift in medical practice from written charts to integrated digital platforms has dramatically increased the visibility, size, and magnitude of health-care information breaches. There are specific steps urgent care operators should take with vendors to protect patient information in this new technological environment. The news makes it seem that data breaches occur on a fairly regular basis. The Ponemon Institute even named 2014 as the year of …

Read More